Why is Santorum doing so well in the primaries?

So yes it looks like Romney is the frontrunner, he won Ohio yesterday, but the margin was slim. Still Santorum is picking up wins in many states. If you are voting for Santorum why? Everytime I hear the man speak or see any other articles about him I am further confused as to how he is doing "ok." What's the Santorum appeal?

And in the end it's the delegates that matter, so I'm not too worried about him.

True and I'm not concerned it's still just perplexing to me he's collecting the votes that he is. But the PP made a good point, for some catholic vs mormon means vote catholic, that could be a lot of it.

I don't get it, and I find it horrifying. Every time he opens his mouth he says something that disgusts me. And I'm lucky enought to live in rural western-PA where the man is a hero to the conservative Christian right. There are seriously people around here who would like to see this nation turned into a Christian theocracy. No exageration.

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My boobs aren't silver or gold, but I do have one of my nipples pierced.

He's way behind in the delegate count and has had 1.2 million fewer votes than Romney. He's actually not doing as well as the media might have you believe. They just want to make it seem like it's still a race, but I don't think it really is.

I agree that it could be the Mormon thing. It could also be that Romney is too moderate for some, the GOP tried moderate last time around with McCain and lost. (Although, according to DH, Bush was supposed to be more conservative and turned out to be moderate in the end.)

Look at *where* he's winning though. Take Ohio for example, the counties with big cities (Columbus, Cleveland, etc. ) went strongly for Romney. The counties that are very rural are going for Santorum. I grew up in one of "those" counties in south Texas, and let me tell you- those folks are as red as a stop sign. Romney is still a little too moderate for them, so the next best thing is Santorum (because they also don't take too kindly to Newt's several marriages/divorces/affairs).